People have been saying the comic industry is dying for the last 20 years. And it's still here and it's still kicking. For me it's become like oil... for the last forty years school books have been saying there is only about 50 years of oil left in reserves or something absurd like that.

We had almost five new thriving companies spring up in the last four years. They are doing exceedingly well. Independent books have never done so well not since the Image/ Valiant boom of the early 90s. DC books are doing semi-well (sadly), after any upheaval like Flash Point, books need to find their even keel again and Marvel has had a number of sell outs this past year.

Plenty of people still buy back issues, premium books like Golden and Silver Age books, order specialty trades, have a pull list. Are pull lists being cut or shortened? Yeah... has it been this way for ages? Yeah, ever since I was 7 and started my first pull list.

The industry is far from dying.

You'll know things are bad when Wizard World falls through and doesn't happen... when Big Apple Con is canceled... and when SDCC is no more!

People have been saying the comic industry is dying for the last 20 years. And it's still here and it's still kicking. For me it's become like oil... for the last forty years school books have been saying there is only about 50 years of oil left in reserves or something absurd like that.

Have you looked at gas prices lately? Somethng tells me we're nearer peak oil than we were forty years ago. Try another analogy.

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We had almost five new thriving companies spring up in the last four years. They are doing exceedingly well. Independent books have never done so well not since the Image/ Valiant boom of the early 90s. DC books are doing semi-well (sadly), after any upheaval like Flash Point, books need to find their even keel again and Marvel has had a number of sell outs this past year.

Plenty of people still buy back issues, premium books like Golden and Silver Age books, order specialty trades, have a pull list. Are pull lists being cut or shortened? Yeah... has it been this way for ages? Yeah, ever since I was 7 and started my first pull list.

The industry is far from dying.

When we say the industry is dying we don't mean that it will happen anytime soon. But if it doesn't bother to try to reach new readers and only relies on the fanboys it currently has, it will certainly die off when they do. How many kids do you know who actually read non-manga comic books? The industry's long-term health isn't looking good.

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You'll know things are bad when Wizard World falls through and doesn't happen... when Big Apple Con is canceled... and when SDCC is no more!

SDCC will be around forever, even after comic books are long gone. It stopped being a con for comics a while ago, around the time they started shilling network procedural dramas and sitcoms. The fact that comics are not the driving force behind ComicCon anymore should tell you that the industry IS in big trouble.

I'm sorry I just don't see, the industry is how I pay my bills and feed my family. I make a decent amount of money every year and every time a new movie comes out I get a handful of new readers come in and pick up a book for the first time. Some stick with it while others don't.

I know a lot of kids who read non-manga comics as they make up a good amount of my business. I had a 14 year old buy a complete run of Iron Man (Vol.1) from me this summer. He mowed every yard in the neighborhood and his parents won't be buying him Christmas gifts for the next ten years. I have a few teens who buy one key book a week or a month for their runs that they are building. I have others who read straight Trade Paper Backs. Although they have to be special ordered, I won't keep trades in stock.

And the gas is a perfect analogy, the prices go up because it's a necessary evil. They can name their own price because we need gasoline not because of some shortage. It's just an oil company monopoly. When we get as bad as the 70s energy crisis again with even and odd days to buy gas then maybe we're in real trouble. Yet everyone wants to jump to this Mad Max conclusion every time gas goes up a penny. When does anything ever really come down in price for a long term, regardless?

I know plenty of people who go to SDCC to do comic business. I rarely take in a panel unless it's industry related. Sure comics have been eclipsed by the films and what not but when I can't move a Showcase Comics 4 at SDCC then I'll know something is wrong.

Actually, I didn't read the article at all. I was responding to BCYa's spot-on appraisal of why the comic book industry is dying. Nothing more. So there was no point for me to miss.

My mistake, then. You responded with a "Quoted for truth" when you quoted the comments from BCYa and his interpretation of my article. Quoted for truth means you agree with the exact statement, yes?

BCYa wrote:

Okay, here's another take. You are losing interest in figure collecting, so you want take down everyone else who enjoys figures with you. Misery loves company?

ha, well, if you say so. I suggest reading it one more time, maybe.

Obtuse observations aside, the point of the article is about the demise of the current action figure collecting hobby in general. Comic books are only a contributing factor, although a strong one. To that point, I don't have any issue with DC attempting to refresh it's properties - I have issue with the haphazard and lazy way it has has been executed. And I am also disappointed with the lack of respect shown to long-time fans who have invested thousands of dollars over the years. It's certainly the publisher's right to handle the characters how they see fit; I personally just don't like many of the changes. Much of the characterization is shallow and superficial, and the costume updates are absurdly rehashed from the 1990s. If that makes me a "grumpy old fanboy", then so be it. It doesn't mean that I am wrong, though. This is just my opinion.

The rest of my commentary is fact - DC has tried hard to develop the younger-reader market, and has failed. The poll conducted by Neilson for DC showed only 2% of comic readers are under 18. My statement of "...chasing a non-existent young adult market..." is accurate.

As for the rest, this is simply my opinion. These are just my observations of the current climate of our hobby, based on facts and personal discussions with industry pros and fellow collectors. I am not trying to tell others how to collect, or how they should feel. If you want to discuss this as a fellow collector, great! If you want to twist my words and just be negative, that is your right, too.

I don't think I've bought a single action figure in all of 2012. I've essentially stopped collecting for a variety of reasons, some you mentioned, some you did not.

1. Lack of anything worth collecting. Some of it, as you said, is brand weariness, how many different versions of Iron Man or Spider-Man can you possibly buy? Another problem is the lack of new and/or interesting lines being produced. How many new lines were produced this year that weren't just copies of already-existing lines? We have Marvel Universe. What's Avengers? More Marvel Universe! When they come out with Iron Man 3, it'll be more Marvel Universe.

2. Lack of availability. Toy stores are essentially going away, it's hard to find anything but the most common figures on shelves and for most peg-warmers, they just sit there for months and/or years on end. Chase figures or variants are almost impossible to find at retail.

4. Prices are way up. I might not mind as much if the quality was there but it just isn't. Those lumps of ugly plastic they're putting on shelves just aren't worth the price they're charging. I don't care what the price of oil is, they have to EARN my dollar and they haven't done it.

So I just don't buy anything. I don't even miss it because there isn't anything out there I actually want to buy. Maybe in another couple of years, something will change. Until then though, I'm out of the action figure collecting biz. It's just not any fun anymore.

My mistake, then. You responded with a "Quoted for truth" when you quoted the comments from BCYa and his interpretation of my article. Quoted for truth means you agree with the exact statement, yes?

I shouldn't have quoted the first two sentences. But I reposted the entire paragraph to put the rest in context. I agree with his analysis of the comic book industry. I have no opinion about his analysis of your article.

My action figure collecting has been really sparse this year.Something here, something there. Not much with No real cohesion or focus.

2013 should be better, though...Batman (60s)whatever 20th Anniversary Power Rangers stuff that comes outIf the new 3.75in Doctor Who figures are a decent price

But if prices keep going up with nothing much I want. This hobby will pretty much be over for me.This year I have basically moved to dvds. The $5 dollar bin is my kryptonite. I find it odd in some ways that dvds are now cheaper than action figures. Blurays are getting cheap to.

This year I have basically moved to dvds. The $5 dollar bin is my kryptonite. I find it odd in some ways that dvds are now cheaper than action figures. Blurays are getting cheap to.

Yeah, I have a massive DVD collection too, over 2000 commercial DVDs so far. I don't know that there's much of a collection aspect to DVDs, I have no white whales because anything I want is always available, but I'd rather spend my money on a good movie than on an over-priced crappy piece of plastic.

Since we got a flat screen and I have one of my computers hooked to it I can't have DVDs, I just can't do it. Everything I once owned has been ripped and archived on external devices or anything new I find and download. The only DVDs I would say I collect are Doctor Who, anything comic book related and various shows like my Black Adder boxset. But everything else, I can't even bring myself to spend five bucks on and I won't deny those are some good deals!

The only physical DVDs I still buy are the Mystery Science Theater 3000 sets because of the extras and I'm a huge fan. Otherwise I find CDs and DVDs a hassle to own and store. Just too much clutter . I wonder if I'll feel that way about comic books some day? Not yet, but I'm more and more digital downloads.

As for action figures, my collecting has really died down and it hasn't been as much fun. The fun is in finding it in a store and the toy companies and retailers have done a horrible job this year working together to get new stuff stocked and sold and flowing through the system. Case in point, the barren void of DC toys in stores and the Phantom Menace figures clogging pegs for a full year.

I am absolutely done driving all across the state looking for figures (like I used to). It used to exciting, now it's misery. I NEVER find anything on toy-runs. When someone is showing off online that they found this or that at Target and then I jump into my car for a hunt: It never ends well. I always, ALWAYS, find the good stuff on non-toy runs. When I'm just picking up groceries and I serendipitously pass through the toys is the only time I find a big surprise.

If I just cool for a period and enjoy the collection I have , then maybe the fun will come back. This year I'm just going to stick to a few 60's Batman figures, Star Wars Vintage and I need a DC52 Wonder Woman and a Professor X. Now that I've completed the Metal Men, I feel that I'm done with 6 inch DC Universe figures.

One thing that helps me stay excited is opening right away. I got in the bad habit of tossing my new acquisitions in the basement and not opening them--I don't know why--because, they just plied up and lost their appeal. I like to keep some stuff MOC but I need to enjoy the process of the opening after the thrill off the finding.

Whether its action figures or Hot Wheels or comics, if there's no excitement, then its going to die. And by excitement, I mean not the same old stuff, stuff I really want, stuff that can keep me interested for more than a few weeks.

Example: a few years ago, DC seemed to be releasing the same characters as figures over and over, with minor differences, UNTIL the ElseWorld figures came out. THAT I got excited about. Now, Superman with a collar? meh.

_________________No thanks. I don't buy it. If Mattel has plans, then they must read them upside down. rono

there were horses, and a man on fire, and I killed a guy with a trident

Joined: Sun Nov 04, 2007 6:30 pmPosts: 1834

I have already stopped subscribing to Mattycollector. My toy hunts to Target, TRU, Walmart, occasionally to Meijers and KMart has dwindled drastically. I don't have that "drive" anymore! Plus the thought of literally driving myself to these places makes me want to just do something else coz I know I am not going to find what I'm looking for.

The last three pack of the JLU line I did not even purchased. Those deliveries from Mattycollector for the past year are just stacked in the basement and have not been opened yet from their shipping boxes! Yes, I think I have finally reached my end of the collecting (at least for aftion figures) habit/hobby. Although nostalgia makes me want to dive back in, but that feeling is shortlived. I think with the many external and personal factors that play in, I can definitely say, I am a few steps away from the finish line.

I'm looking for the newest wave of Marvel Universe. A buddy got me Herc and Nightwing. I've hit six different stores (WM, Target, and a TRU) in the past week with absolutely no luck.

I'm also looking for Dani and Blade from Marvel Legends. No luck. I'll get most of the next wave . . . if I can find them. I've noticed almost all of my Walmarts have dropped shelve space for ML (I only know of one the carries them), so it's up to TRU and Target (the latter of which is still pumping out the Piledriver/Masked Wolverine refresher wave).

There's a couple more Joes I'd like, but I can't find much beyond Storm Shadow, Snake-eyes, and the fake Roadblock. I was lucky at a Kmart several weeks ago, but nothing since.

Star Wars apparently is abandoning any new stuff in the 3.75 inch scale this year, so nothing to collect there.

I got the lone Batman Unlimited and DC Unlimited characters I wanted. I also got the lone Transformer I was looking for (Kickback). I snagged the Iron Man Legends, but it'll be at least a couple months until the next wave comes out.

It's getting to the point where online shopping just makes sense because the action figure aisle is getting more and more pathetic every month.

So, primarily it's a lack of new product that interests me. I loved the Iron Man 2 figures, but the IM3 ones are terrible. I would have spent a ton on them, but the lack of articulation turns me off.

Combine that with a 20 plus year collection of characters from various lines (how many more Vaders, Storm Shadows, Spider-men, Fetts, Batmen, Aquamen, Cobra troops, Iron Men, etc. do I need?), and I'm at the point where most of the characters I want will never get made because they are C-listers or lower.

Once DCUC, ML, and MU end, I'm probably out of the superhero collection game. The only thing that would get me back in would be a well done DC 3.75 line a la MU. But I want the classic versions of the characters which are currently out of vogue.

_________________Leave it up to a billionaire to buy the world some time --- Tony Stark